Greenlizard0 PL & Championship Football Thread ** spoilers ** [19th - 23rd Feb 2021]

[BaZ87]

I expect them to sign a CB when we literally have zero fit. Preferably at the start not the end of the window...

As I asked, who? And we did have a CB fit, until right at the end of the window.

I wish they'd signed Messi 10 years ago but then I wake up and realise that Barca might not have wanted to sell him and to trigger his buyout clause would have meant spending billions But we should have spent £70m on Pepe! And then I remember that he's total garbage. Those damn owners!

If you can tell me of one decent CB that was available, for a semi reasonable amount of money in January then you'll have a valid argument. And that's not giving the owners the benefit of the fact there's a pandemic and the club are generating circa £100m less than they would have been in normal circumstances, on top of the £50m odd from last season.

Just watching match of the day and seen the Everton penalty. Looks like a definite motion to hook his foot to me.

I'll be honest, I've not watched it since the game but I didn't think he touches him with his leg. DCL runs into the bank of him, kneeing him in the back of the head and goes over.

 

[omnomnom]

As I asked, who? And we did have a CB fit, until right at the end of the window.

I wish they'd signed Messi 10 years ago but then I wake up and realise that Barca might not have wanted to sell him and to trigger his buyout clause would have meant spending billions But we should have spent £70m on Pepe! And then I remember that he's total garbage. Those damn owners!

If you can tell me of one decent CB that was available, for a semi reasonable amount of money in January then you'll have a valid argument. And that's not giving the owners the benefit of the fact there's a pandemic and the club are generating circa £100m less than they would have been in normal circumstances, on top of the £50m odd from last season.

I'll be honest, I've not watched it since the game but I didn't think he touches him with his leg. DCL runs into the bank of him, kneeing him in the back of the head and goes over.

Caleta Car who they were in for? Davies and Kabak....a month earlier. We had months to prepare and they failed.

Ultimately it isn't mine or your job to sort it. They have the scouting networks and signed two CBS to come in....why not do that 4 weeks earlier? Why does it take Klopp moaning to the press about it?

 

[CliffyG]

There looks to be contact with the foot he has outstretched.

 

[adam cool dude]

I would have said Upamecano would have been available for a decent wedge. Conor coady would have been available for 30 million. Liverpool needed to sign at least one decent CB to partner the two cheap ones you bought.

If you miss out on Europe next season the money you could have spent will be lost anyway.

You also have the possibility that VVD has lost a yard of pace when he comes back. He is no spring chicken anymore. Granted Roy Keane came back after a year out as strong as ever but he never relied on pace either.

 

[ThundyCat]

There looks to be contact with the foot he has outstretched.

Yup, clear as day from the other angle.

 

[BaZ87]

Caleta Car who they were in for? Davies and Kabak....a month earlier. We had months to prepare and they failed.

Caleta Car, who Marseille wouldn't sell? I've no idea if he's any good either. And Davies, who is behind Nat Phillips in Klopp's plans and Kabak that doesn't look very good? And on Kabak, it was reported that we enquired about him before the January window opened and were being quoted £25m for him - given what you've seen, would you have spent £25m on him when we had Matip, Fabinho & Henderson all fit?

I'm sure you said we had to sign a CB in the summer of 2017, I certainly did. Thank god we didn't spend £30m on Jonny Evans and decided it was better to wait until we can get VVD. Everything is easier with hindsight though. Given how things have gone it would have been difficult to be worse off had we signed Kabak or any other random CB on Jan 1st but the club don't make decisions with hindsight.

I would have said Upamecano would have been available for a decent wedge. Conor coady would have been available for 30 million. Liverpool needed to sign at least one decent CB to partner the two cheap ones you bought.

I actually mentioned Upamencano yesterday. The most sought-after CB in Europe but performed like a League 2 defender vs us and Utd. There's not a chance Leipzig were selling him, especially not to us after drawing them in the CL, in January. Leipzig don't need money and if he didn't have a release clause he'd have not been going anywhere, certainly not in January. Liverpool tried to get Leipzig to let us take Keita in January when we'd already signed him for the following summer and they point blank refused to let him go.

I'm not convinced Wolves would have sold Coady and he's exactly what we didn't and don't need. Coady's a central midfielder playing CB - at the start (and end) of January we had both Henderson and Fabinho doing that job. What we need is a proper, physical CB to play alongside one of those because where we were/are vulnerable is defending long balls and balls into the box. Coady wouldn't help there.

As for VVD, do you lose pace when you do an ACL? A lot of docs talking about the injury suggest most players now can 100% recover from the injury and the biggest danger is either coming back too soon or psychological issues with players not trusting their knee and as a result going into challenges half heartedly, which is more likely to result in an injury that when they fully commit.

 

[robfosters]

Hilarious stuff from spurs there!

 

[Pigeon_Killer]

Maybe I'm only noticing it more because it's Liverpool but I can't recall another side have the run of injuries we've had this season, I certainly can't recall another Liverpool side have anything close to it.

We were absolutely ruined in 2015 and again in 2016 although I can't remember if 2016 was as bad. I just remember our result dropped off massively in January and the beginning of Feb.

https://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/revealed-liverpools-staggering-201516-injury-7139533

You can't expect or prepare for impact injuries but Klopp's going to face similar problems every season as long as he prefers/has to make use of a smaller squad and sticks with his intense training methods.

 

[Purdy]

So what happened from 2017-2020 and why is it the two starting CBs having non training related injuries who are out for the season?

Needs to be some acceptance that our forwards are actually kinda terrible at finishing too

 

[explicit4u]

Lingard goal should stand, Spurs on the ropes here.

 

[Mark1989]

Ourselves and Spuds really don't want to be in top 4 this year

 

[adam cool dude]

I actually mentioned Upamencano yesterday. The most sought-after CB in Europe but performed like a League 2 defender vs us and Utd. There's not a chance Leipzig were selling him, especially not to us after drawing them in the CL, in January. Leipzig don't need money and if he didn't have a release clause he'd have not been going anywhere, certainly not in January. Liverpool tried to get Leipzig to let us take Keita in January when we'd already signed him for the following summer and they point blank refused to let him go.

As for VVD, do you lose pace when you do an ACL? A lot of docs talking about the injury suggest most players now can 100% recover from the injury and the biggest danger is either coming back too soon or psychological issues with players not trusting their knee and as a result going into challenges half heartedly, which is more likely to result in an injury that when they fully commit.

I was actually just using Upamencano as an example. He got completely schooled when we beat them 5-0 as well but I am not really up to speed on what are decent CB's these days and it seems a bit of a lottery and there is very little available. Leicester got an absolute steal with Soyuncu so they are out there. Just need to find them.

I am sure Liverpool could have found someone solid at least on a loan or 20 million to fill in.

 

[fez]

Wonder if Mou will be gone after today or if he’s got a few more bad results before he’s pushed.

 

[Shamikebab]

Can Spurs afford such a huge severance pay?

 

[BaZ87]

We were absolutely ruined in 2015 and again in 2016 although I can't remember if 2016 was as bad. I just remember our result dropped off massively in January and the beginning of Feb.

https://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/revealed-liverpools-staggering-201516-injury-7139533

You can't expect or prepare for impact injuries but Klopp's going to face similar problems every season as long as he prefers/has to make use of a smaller squad and sticks with his intense training methods.

2015 was bad but not this season level bad. Other than the two ACL's (one happened in Klopp's first training session and one on International duty the day Klopp took over) I can't think of any long term injuries that season other than Origi (which was an impact injury from a challenge) and Can doing his ankle ligaments. From memory it was lots of little 1-2 week injuries. We're only just over half way through this season and pretty much half our 1st team squad have had medium to long term injuries.

edit: Henderson had his heal problem in 15/16 too but that was an issue before Klopp took over and had nothing to do with his training or style of play.

As I said last night, it's only really in midfield and at fullback that Klopp puts high demand on players and particularly in midfield we've always had lots of players to rotate. Sometimes you just have to accept that **** happens. We've had several major injuries that have not been linked to fatigue or high intensity football - it's just **** luck that they've happened in this season of all seasons and in a short period of time and things snowballed from there.

I was actually just using Upamencano as an example. He got completely schooled when we beat them 5-0 as well but I am not really up to speed on what are decent CB's these days and it seems a bit of a lottery and there is very little available. Leicester got an absolute steal with Soyuncu so they are out there. Just need to find them.

They are but for every Soyuncu, there's a Mustafi. When you look at the amount of £30-80m CB's that have been bought and sold over the past 5-6 years, how many would you say have been decent signings? Very few imo and most have been terrible. I've been saying since the summer, most CB's are pretty **** right now. I'm not sure if that's just a coincidence or if it's linked to the way football has gone, with teams being a lot more adventurous than before and the ease at which forwards go to ground meaning tackling is a high risk action.

Under FSG we've always taken a very cautious and calculated approach to transfers which is why we've had such a high success rate - unless we've been convinced by a particular player then we've not been willing to pay meaningful money for on them. We've never worked towards a set budget and transfers decisions have always been made on an individual basis - had a particular player been available that the club thought was the answer then they'd have found the money to sign them.

 

[robfosters]

Shouldn’t all the constant Liverpool chat be in the Liverpool thread?

 

[Jimbeam3678]

Shouldn’t all the constant Liverpool chat be in the Liverpool thread?

Go on Rob, you love it

 

[mysticsniper]

Get in Leicester 0-1 Maddison. Are you watching Southgate!

 

[jonneymendoza]

Caleta Car, who Marseille wouldn't sell? I've no idea if he's any good either. And Davies, who is behind Nat Phillips in Klopp's plans and Kabak that doesn't look very good? And on Kabak, it was reported that we enquired about him before the January window opened and were being quoted £25m for him - given what you've seen, would you have spent £25m on him when we had Matip, Fabinho & Henderson all fit?

I'm sure you said we had to sign a CB in the summer of 2017, I certainly did. Thank god we didn't spend £30m on Jonny Evans and decided it was better to wait until we can get VVD. Everything is easier with hindsight though. Given how things have gone it would have been difficult to be worse off had we signed Kabak or any other random CB on Jan 1st but the club don't make decisions with hindsight.

I actually mentioned Upamencano yesterday. The most sought-after CB in Europe but performed like a League 2 defender vs us and Utd. There's not a chance Leipzig were selling him, especially not to us after drawing them in the CL, in January. Leipzig don't need money and if he didn't have a release clause he'd have not been going anywhere, certainly not in January. Liverpool tried to get Leipzig to let us take Keita in January when we'd already signed him for the following summer and they point blank refused to let him go.

I'm not convinced Wolves would have sold Coady and he's exactly what we didn't and don't need. Coady's a central midfielder playing CB - at the start (and end) of January we had both Henderson and Fabinho doing that job. What we need is a proper, physical CB to play alongside one of those because where we were/are vulnerable is defending long balls and balls into the box. Coady wouldn't help there.

As for VVD, do you lose pace when you do an ACL? A lot of docs talking about the injury suggest most players now can 100% recover from the injury and the biggest danger is either coming back too soon or psychological issues with players not trusting their knee and as a result going into challenges half heartedly, which is more likely to result in an injury that when they fully commit.

Arsenal have had far more injuries then most. Especially during Wenger last few years in charge. Remember the saying how arsenal players where made out of glass?

Anyways how many of your first team is injured?

Imo it's a combination of both injuries and teams knowing how to play against you now.

I said it back in 2019 xmas period where Liverpool stopped blowing almost every team they played against.

You been found out a bit.

Yes there's been a few good results along the way but most you have had to battle hard to win games and that's when you had a full strength side.

You still have basically your front 3 and few months back, they couldn't hit a barn door!

They created chances but that front 3 where not putting them away. You can't blame injuries for that!

 

[el_dazza]

We're so bad atm. No Grealish = no chance.